A man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday, two years after authorities say he beat a puppy to death with a metal rod.
Gary Kennedy, 55, pleaded no contest to an animal cruelty charge and was sentenced to the maximum amount of time possible, KSAT reported.
Police arrested Kennedy in August 2014 after he beat a young shar pei-mix dog to death with a piece of metal rebar, according to San Antonio Animal Care Services. He was seen in surveillance video taken in July 2014 beating an 8-month-old shar-pei named Boscoe at a construction site, the San Antonio Express-News reported. He put the dog in a bag and dragged it from the scene, ACS representatives said.
According to KSAT, Kennedy has previously been convicted of several violent offenses.
"We know that there's an established link between animal cruelty and human violence that must inform our response to these cases," ACS Field Supervisor Audra Houghton said in a statement. "This conviction supports addressing that progression of violence and stopping it before hurting pets turns into hurting people."
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